of stamford



p 19312- w. H. WHEELER. JR.. ETAL 1,321,044

POSTAGE INDICIA STAMP PAD Filed April 30, 1930 Patented Sept. 1, 1931' Curran STATES PATENT OFFICE WALTER n. WHEELER, mum) AUGUSTUS K. View), or STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT,

assrcnons To PITNEY-BOWES rosraen METER Co., on STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT,

A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE- "POSTAGE INDICIA sTAMP PAD Application filed April 30, 1930. Serial No. 448,629.

Our invention is a novel pad for use in connection with so-call'ed postage meter machines whichfordinarily print postal indicia upon envelopes or ordinary mail matter in lieu of stamps.

The metered mail and other postage metermachines now in use, are designed and adapted for printing postage indicia directly upon the envelope or wrapper of each piece of'ordinary letter mail; but many pieces of mail are so bulky or of such form that they cannot have postage indicia printed directly thereon by such metered mail machines; and at present the owners and users of such postage meter machines have to carry a supply of the regular adhesive postage stamps to use on the mail matter which the machines cannot handle.

' The object of the invention is to provide a novel pad containing strips of paper and which pad can be fed through such postage indicia machines like an ordinary letter and have the postage indicia printed upon strips carried by the pad and the amount of the postage printed on the strip by means of such attachment will be recorded in the meter of the machine to which the attachment is applied exactly as if such indicia had been printed by'such machine on normal mail matter. The portion of the strip hearing such indicia can then be severed from the pad and attached'to bulky letters or parcels that can not'be operated upon by the standard postage meter machines.

In the accompanying drawings we have shown our attachment as especially designed for use in connection with the postage metcred mail machine which is fully shown and described in the application ofWVheeler and Ogden filed MarchS, 1929, Serial No. 345,515, but the invention can be used in connection with other postage meter machines. In the claims we have summarized the essentials of the invention for which protection is desired.

In said drawings Fig. lis a partial front view of a postage meter machine showing our novel pad therein in position to be printed; Fig. 2 is a detail side view of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the pad detached. Fig. 4 is a side view of the pad and Fig. 5 is an end. view of the pad.

The metered mail postage meter machine shown in Wheeler and Ogdens aforesaid application is adapted to postmark and print one or more stamp indicia upon an envelope, and to seal the envelope during its passage through the machine, and to record the value of each stamp, of whatever denomination, that is printed-upon the envelope, in a socalled meter which can be removed from the machine and taken to the postotlice and set for different amounts of prepaid postage, and whereby when the amount of prepaid postage has been used the machine will be automatically locked against further effective operation until additional postage is purchased and the meter reset accordingly.

I The postage meter machine shown in lVheeler and Ogdens application is provided with a rotatable drum 16 carrying adjustable printing dies and at each rotation of the drum the desired printing die will be brought into operative coaction with an impression roll 111 which is supported upon a yieldable spring-supported plate 112.

In operating this machine an envelope is slid flap downward from left to right over the plate 112 until its leading end is in position for operation, then the drum 16 is revolved once, and shortly before the dies arrive at the printing pointthe envelope will be gripped between the drum and revolving roller and have the indicia printed thereon,

and be delivered at the right of the machine,

Fig. 2.

The said machineis fully described in WVheeler and Ogd-ens aforesaid application and detailed illustration and description thereof herein is unnecessary.

Said Wheeler and Ogden machine is but one of various machines designed for printing postage indicia upon letters or mail matter to which our invention is adaptable.

Our novel pad preferably comprises a back or base portion 1 preferably of cardboard or paper of sufficient thickness to maintain its, shape and support the strip pads mounted thereon. In the example shown two longitudinally arranged strip piles 2 and 3 are mounted upon the base. Each strip pile is stamp and which may be distinctively marked or colored if desired in any suitable manner. The strips are slightly widerthan the width of the impression to be made thereon'by the stamp indicia of the postage meter machine. The strips are preferably mucllaged on their I under sides so that when removed they can be moistened and readily attached to an envelope or package.

The series of strips in the pile 2 are fastened together at one end 2a, and the series of strips'inpile 3 are fastened together at the opposite end 3a. The strips can be successively readily detached by pulling them from the pad; We do not consider the invention limited to having the strips attached at one end only but they should be so attached to the base that they will not be liable to be displaced by contact with the drum or roller but may be readily manually detached as desired.

Further the strippiles 2 and 3 are adja cent, but the base of the pad 1 preferably projects at each side beyond the edge of the adjacent strip pile'as indicated at 1a in order to insure that the innermost'pile, or the one adjacent the rear flange 112?; of the table 112, will be properly spaced away from said flange so that the top strip thereof will be in proper position to receive the impressions from the die 17?) when the pad is fed through the machine. While the strips could be made suiticiently'wide to cover the margins 10s of the base, if this was done the impressions made on the strips by the machine would not be nicely centered; upon the strip, and therefore itsprinted strip would not present neat ap pearance when detached from the pad and applied to mail matter. I

Two strip piles 2 and 3 are provided so as to enable the successive stamped indici-a to be printed upon a strip by the said Wheeler and Ogden machine beforethe pad is discharged from the machine, in case the amount of post age desired is greater than the face value of any one die, or is the multiple of the face value of any one stamp die, inwhichcase successlve impressions can be made upon the strip as thepa-d is passed through machine,

in the same manner that successive impressionsmay be madeupon an envelope as described in the said Wheeler and Ogden application. For this purpose, in said machine, pi-yoted fingers 13 are employed, see Figs. 1 and 2, and when more than one stamp imprint is to be made upon an envelope or strip the fingersare operated to stop the envelope after each lmpresslon until the desired number of v impressions are made upon the envelope, as

fully described in sa1d'VIheeler and Ogden application and therefore need not be describedherein. But. after the desired number of successive imprints/have been made pile the finger 13' will engage the outermost strip pile and will retain the pad in place in the same manner that an envelope could be retained when an envelope is being printed with a'successive number of imprints as described in the said Wheeler and Ogden application.

If a suliieiently wide strip was used it would not be necessary to put two strip piles on the pad, but such wide strips would be very objectionable because being so much wider than the indicia impressions the resulting stamp torn from the strip would be unsightly when applied to thepackage. Furtherby using two strip piles side by'side on the pad proper double the number of stamps can be'obtained from a given thickness of pad; and the detached strip stamps are of a neat width and appearance. The two strip pads enable one or any desired number of successive impressions to be printed on a strip during one passage of the pad through the machine. By connecting the strips together at the ends 2a, 3a at opposite ends of the pads the leading edge of the strip which'is to be printed upon and whichcomes into contact with the drum-and die is held down and cannot curl up or become misplaced in passing into or through the machine; and no matter which end'of the pad is introduced into the machine the leading end of the strip to be printed upon is held down.

In use. the pad should be reversed on alternate runs through the machine so that the strips 2 and 3 will be alternately printed upon and alternately removed. In this manner the strip piles 2 and 3 will be exhausted equally and kept at a substantially uniform level until all the strips have been printed; and in this way the pads can be utilized most el'liciently'and satisfactorily.

hen mail matter is being stamped by the machine in the usual manner envelopes or packages too bulkyto be handled by the ma chine are to be mailed'the operator can put them to one side, and after theuniform mail has been handled the pad can be run through the 1nachine,'by passing either end of the pad to and between the impression roller 11 and the printing drum 16, and the pad will be fed through the machine in the same ill tion of the strip bearing the stamp indicia adjacent one end of the pad, and the strips in the other pile being connected adjacent the other end of the base. i

-2. A' pad for the purpose specified; comprising a base and piles of superposed strips of paper, the piles being arranged side by side upon the base, one pile having the strips therein connected together adjacent one end of the base and the. adjacent pile having the 'strips therein connected together adjacent the other end of the base.

3 A pad for the purposespecified; COID- prising a base and piles ofsuperposed strips of paper, the piles being arranged side by side upon the base, one pile having the strips therein connected together adjacent one end of the hi: the adjacent pile having the strips therein connected together adjacent the other end of the base, the sides of the pad projecting beyond the sides of the piles.

4. A pad for use in connection with indicia printing machines and thelike; comprising a base and piles of superposed strips arranged side by side on the base; the strips in each pile being detachably attached to each other at one end of the pile, the connected ends otthe strips being adjacentopposite ends of the base; said pad being adapted to be passed through the machine like an ordinary envelope, so that the top strip may be printed with indicia, and thereafter detached.

5. A pad for use in connection with machines for printing postage indicia; comprising a base. and adjacent piles of superposed strips gumined on one side detachably chines for printing postage indicia and the attached to each other at one end, the attached end of the sheets in one pile being adjacentone end of the pad, and the attached ends of the sheets in the other pile being adjatopmost strip may be printed and thereafter detached, the projecting edge of the base guiding and properly positioning the pad relative to the printing die.

7. In a pad as set forth in claim 6, the strips of paper being gummed on their under sides.

WALTER H. WHEELER, JR. AUGUSTUS K. VIELE.

cent the other end of the pad, said piles being attached side by side to the base, the pad being adapted to be passed through the machine like an ordinary envelope so that a top snip may be printed With postage indicia and thereafter detached and applied as a stamp to bulky mail matten 6. A pad for use in connection with malilze; comprising a base and a pile of superposed strips detachably attached to each other and to the base, the side edge of the base projecting at the side of the strip; said pad being adapted to be passed through the machine like an ordinary envelope so that the 

